Review of Betty Crocker Ultimate Smoked Bacon & White Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

I’m actually not a huge fan of instant mashed potatoes. We do make them quite often because of the convenience (we just don’t have the time to peel potatoes every time we make a meal). But, more often than not, I’m left unimpressed with the taste.

So, when I saw my wife was preparing this product to go with dinner last night, I did have some doubts about it. As it turns out, it was better than expected.

As far as overall quality goes, it was pretty obvious these potatoes came from a box. My wife made them in the microwave following the instructions on the box and they came out almost paste-like in texture. And, while I did try to give them the benefit of the doubt, in part because I didn’t want to hurt my wife’s feelings, I do have to admit that did leave me feeling less than enthused.

However, as far as taste goes, these potatoes did exceed my expectations a bit. I couldn’t really taste the bacon in them (the pieces were too small) but the cheddar cheese was definitely noticeable.

If nothing else, I can honestly say they were better than many other brands of boxed potatoes, including the instant potatoes we had a few weeks ago that were just dry tasting regardless of what we did to them. In fact, despite being somewhat reluctant to even try these potatoes, I did end up having a second serving of them.

Overall, I would have to say these potatoes were considerably better than many other brands and variety of instant mashed potatoes we have purchased in the past. And, because of that, I am going to give them a passing grade. However, as is usually the case with products like this, you do ultimately sacrifice some quality in exchange for the convenience and, if given the choice between these and making similar mashed potatoes from scratch, I would still choose the latter if I had enough time to do so.

My Grade: B